Banana Fish Drabbles
by Angela Pirate Ryoko
Summary: This is a collection of 100-word drabbles I've written. A lot of them will be about Ash and Eiji, but a lot of them will be about other characters, too. I'll update with a new chapter for each new drabble I post.
1. Chapter 1

The Morning After

by Angela

04-29-07

"Are you surprised?" Eiji asked sleepily, pulling Ash away from his sunrise.

Ash looked at him, at his messed up hair and swollen lips. At the hickey beneath his collarbone and the tangled blankets. Yes, he was surprised. He thought he'd never get to see this. He thought his control was stronger, that he would outlast this passion or die trying. But it wasn't unexpected; the idea of this morning had been living with him for months.

He shook his head. "It's been a long time coming," he said, looking back out at the dawn.

"Yeah," his friend softly agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

Sugar, We're Goin' Down

by Angela

It only happened once – a drunken fiasco they'd both promised to forget. But Alex kept the memory like a treasure: sometimes taking it out, soaking it in, then carefully storing it back where it would stay safe. He wondered why they'd done it. And why not again?

Eiji. At first Alex resented him for being helpless and naive. When he saw how things really were there were a million other reasons, all of them centered on the fact that he'd trade everything to be in the kid's shoes – those shoes that fell to the floor each night next to Ash's.


	3. Chapter 3

Anna Begins

by Angela

Eiji rolls over, mumbling Japanese in his sleep and Ash feels the flame of some emotion – love? – burning in his chest. He pulls a pillow over his head and squeezes his eyes shut.

Ash hadn't planned on this. It didn't fit into any of his calculations. To be perfectly honest, he'd thought he was immune. He knows he isn't ready – there are a million reasons why not. How can he look at what he has to do if he sees only Eiji?

He speaks again. It's soft, drowsy, and adorable, and Ash gets it. God help him, he gets it.


	4. Chapter 4

Bring Me to Life

by Angela

He came to New Jersey as a favor to someone – just hearing the man out and considering the position was enough to cover an old debt and Blanca couldn't afford not to take the easy out. It's hard to start over with obligations looming over your head.

He never intended to take the job.

It wasn't the money that changed his mind. It wasn't the challenge. Or the connections, though all of these would've been good enough reasons once.

It was the boy. His eyes moved something in Blanca's soul; for the first time in too long, it came alive.


	5. Chapter 5

You Needed Me

by Angela

The boy on the floor crunched his potato chips, letting crumbs fall into the pristine carpet. Yau-Si didn't scold – even when his soda fizzed into a priceless rug. He just watched.

They were watching television – a baseball game, if you can believe it.

It'd become a weekly tradition: Chips. Pizza. Yankees game. And Sing.

Yau-Si couldn't get into it like Sing could – he didn't know the players names or swear when the other team scored a run. And he hadn't yet developed a taste for the greasy American food Sing always brought.

But in its own way, it was fun.


	6. Chapter 6

Clumsy Card House

by Angela

Max didn't believe in love until he saw Jessica. She ignored the rain – sitting on the park bench, watching the roiling storm clouds. He could tell she was broken: not shattered – cracked just beneath the surface. He saw and wanted to touch her. To hold her.

He had cracks too: a web of fine lines and stress fractures from too many years behind an M-16. Max knew immediately. He needed her. Loved her.

He took a deep breath, then held out his umbrella and an upturned hand. He prayed she wouldn't refuse him, wouldn't take offense.

She didn't. She smiled.


	7. Chapter 7

Piglet and Pooh

by Angela

2-27-09

Sometimes, out of the blue and for no reason, Eiji was swamped with doubt, afraid that every dizzying moment he'd lived since meeting Ash was nothing but a fantasy. Whenever that happened, he would reach out and touch him: his shoulder blade, his arm, the thin tapering of his wrist. Just a brush against warm skin to prove that he was solid and real.

"What?" Ash would bark, scrutinizing his face.

Eiji always blushed. "Nothing." And he would pull away, embarrassed and yet comforted.

Ash's answer was always the same. "Homo," he'd mutter, shaking his head. Still, his eyes smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

Buyer's Remorse

by Angela

April 29, 2009

Only twenty minutes home from the bookstore, and Eiji was bored. He glanced hopefully at Ash, but his friend was engrossed in his novel.

Television then: soap opera . . . commercial . . . game show? But he never understood American games – after a minute, he switched it off.

"Ash?"

"Hmm." He didn't look up.

Eiji paced. Prowled the kitchen. Ate crackers.

"You read _all day_?"

Ash grunted. "You bought comics."

And read them. Eiji glanced at his stack of _Shounen Sunday._

_Don't you wanna get any real books? _Ash had asked.

Now he wished he had. Eiji sighed.


End file.
